My Bucket List:
- Wonder: Certified Kind Classroom Challenge
- Precept Picker
- Mystery Meet Ups
- Classroom Community Service
- Engineering Design Project
- Incorporate Related Nonfiction Text
- Kindness Ambassador
I'm going to start by sharing some of the unplanned twists and turns I took this school year. After hearing discussions from students and learning so much from the NCTE conference, I did some new activities that really helped build community.
Unplanned Excitement!
Wonder Themed Halloween Costume!
Remember in my last post when I said I only got to dress up as a Wonder themed Halloween costume once?? Well, yet again I fudged the rules! Our theme this year was Emojis....so I DIYed my own Emoji...The kids (and families) loved it!
Wonder Family Movie Night
OK, talk about HIGHLIGHT of the school year so far!! I invited families from my class this year and last to join us for a movie night at a theater nearby. The turnout was incredible! I booked one whole theater (the biggest one) for the class, and it was completely filled. The class was SO excited to be there, and it was so special to have the families see how special the story is, too. AMC made it incredibly easy to plan, too. I literally just booked the room. They waived the fee, and parents paid when they got to the theater!
Wonder Debates
I have to say, seeing students do this was a proud teacher moment. When I was in a grad school class a couple years ago, I saw this video showing Pinwheel Discussions. I immediately thought that it would be interesting to try something like this with Wonder. The whole idea of it really captivated me, but I had a hard time figuring out how to get fourth graders to do something this rigorous.
Here's what I did:
I'm SO sad I don't have any pictures or videos of this. I was observed for this lesson, so I didn't want to be recording the whole time. Not to toot my own horn, but my principal really loved the lesson, too.
It's different from a book club, and in my opinion, more powerful.
- GOAL: STUDENTS lead a discussion to debate/share higher level thinking about the text: (ie. how their characters would respond in different situations, themes, etc)
- They have to empathize with the characters, infer & provide evidence to support their thinking, build on others' ideas, respectfully communicate with one another
- Students were assigned a role: Discussion Director or Character (Auggie, Mrs. Pullman, or Via)
- Discussion Directors had to generate and ask questions to keep the conversation going. They worked as facilitators, ensuring each student gets a voice and that each student is providing evidence to support their thinking.
- Characters had to become experts on a certain perspective. They had to do research beforehand, analyzing character traits and providing evidence to support thinking.
What do I LOVE about this activity?
- Students ran the show. Literally, I just facilitated.
- It required students to think on their feet!
- It gave students a voice!
- They felt accountable. Each student took their role incredibly seriously!
- Students were ENGAGED!! Every. Single. Student. BEGGED me to do the activity again, and had ideas of what they wanted to debate.
I'm SO sad I don't have any pictures or videos of this. I was observed for this lesson, so I didn't want to be recording the whole time. Not to toot my own horn, but my principal really loved the lesson, too.
COMMENT BELOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT HOW I IMPLEMENTED THIS, MORE ABOUT WHAT THEY DISCUSSED, AND WHAT I PLAN TO DO NEXT WITH DEBATES!
"What's Your Story" Themed Literacy
With our Personal Narrative unit, I kind of had a "What's Your Story" theme to it (again, THANK YOU to my Advanced Learning Facilitator for helping my students with this so much). We watched a TED Talk, inferred from pictures from Humans of New York, and Skyped with a real-life Auggie! The whole idea is that everyone has a story that should be heard. Naturally humans tend to "write stories" for others, but that can lead to judgement and misunderstanding. Through this we discussed the power of sharing our stories, our perspectives, and taking risks when writing. The discussion we had, and the content of the stories was really incredible. I will absolutely be doing this again!
COMMENT BELOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT HOW I IMPLEMENTED THIS!
Bucket List Reflection
Wonder: Certified Kind Classroom Challenge
The class has really enjoyed the different components of this. We designed shirts, and have been doing the kindness jar since day 1! Unfortunately we didn't win any of the contests yet, but it has been fun to be a part of such a special community.Precept Picker
This has been a meaningful part of our weekly class meetings. What I love most about this is that it is a subtle way to give all students a voice. I love seeing what each student picks each week. If students finish early or if there's ever any down time, classmates get to post responses to the quotes. I look forward to seeing how their responses grow over the course of the year.Wonder Mystery Meet Up
If you read my last post, one of my goals was to start doing mystery meet ups. So far we have connected with classrooms in 6 different states! Students are really eager to take on this challenge, and I love seeing how they work together! We've made so much growth with communication since our first Mystery Meet Up!Classroom Community Service
I have not yet dabbled in this piece. Again, I struggle with asking families for money. Does anyone have any suggestions? I DID get this idea from the Facebook Wonder group:For our Kindness Wonder Jar, instead of using marbles for each act of kindness, we use pennies. When we fill the jar with pennies, we pick an organization to donate to!
Engineering Design Project & Incorporate Related Nonfiction Text
After collaborating with our school's Advanced Learning Facilitator, she made some good points about students designing for the engineering design project...Their designs will probably be more thoughtful if they build their background knowledge on peoples' differences. I plan to do the design project at the end of the year now, and have been building their background knowledge throughout the year. I did an "empathy" themed guided reading week where students did activities that helped them empathize with people who have differences. We then read Nonfiction articles about adaptive technology. Here's a collaborative anchor chart we made. Does anyone have any other resources to help students empathize?Kindness Ambassador
I'd love to improve with this. Right now our school is doing a kindness challenge, so the kindness ambassadors have been the ones to remind the class of the weekly kindness challenge. They also keep an eye out for students who haven't been recognized for being "Wonderful" and write Wonderful Student cards for them (see previous post). Does anyone have any other ideas of ways to utilize kindness ambassadors best?
On a Different Note...
I'm working on some new TPT products. I made some Valentines (or really anytime "greeting cards") for students. More to come, but here's a start!
TPT Bucket List:
- MORE Valentine styles
- Wonder Brag Tags
Any Requests?? Comment below!
Looking Forward To...
- Reading my students' Wonder chapters!! They're due this week, and they were SO excited to get creative with this project!!
- Engineering Project
- More debating!!!
